It was just
a mistake that day in May 2003 when an exterminator sprayed weedkiller
around Madison Middle School.

But the fresh
spring air pouring into the sixth- and seventh-grade classroom
windows became tainted with the acrid smell of Formula 190, sending
one teacher home and 42 nauseated and dizzy children to the hospital.

A mistake,
but not an anomaly.

Between 1998
and 2002, 2,096 individuals, including 1,425 children, were sickened
in U.S. schools from exposure to pesticides, according to a report
presented at the 2004 American Public Health Association's annual
meeting.

No federal
restrictions govern the use of toxic chemicals in and around schools,
and a School Environmental Protection Act, introduced in 1999,
failed to pass Congress, leaving caution in the hands of the states.

In Ohio, the
law only requires commercial applicators to post signs when a
lawn pesticide - an herbicide, insecticide or fungicide - has
been applied.

In an effort
to make Ohio schools safer district by district, all Northeast
Ohio school districts - including 100 public systems and 150 private
and parochial schools - have been invited to learn about safer
approaches to pesticide use.

The presentation
will be at Beachwood High School from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday.
A presentation geared to parents and teachers is from 7 to 9 p.m.
Tuesday. They are sponsored by Beyond Pesticides, a Washington,
D.C.-based nonprofit agency; the Cleveland-based Ohio Coalition
Against the Misuse of Pesticides; and the George Gund Foundation.

Pesticides
present a greater danger to children than adults quite simply
because children are smaller.

They breathe
more air per pound of body weight than adults, creating greater
lung exposure to fumes and vapors. They're small, so pesticides
are at a higher concentration when absorbed. And they're short
and closer to the ground, where pesticides concentrate - because
pesticide fumes are heavier than air,

Brains and
nervous systems of children are particularly vulnerable because
developing cells are less able to repair damage caused by environmental
toxins. Consequently, if a child's brain cells are damaged by
toxic chemical exposure, it likely is irreversible. Exposure has
been associated with mental retardation, motor disabilities, behavioral
disorders, learning impairment or delayed motor development.

A growing
body of evidence also links pesticide exposure with asthma attacks
and the development of asthma disorders, as well as leukemia,
lymphoma and brain cancer.

Since children
spend a great deal of time at school, decreasing their exposure
to pesticides there would go a long way to decreasing their cumulative
exposure, said Jay Feldman, founder and director of Beyond Pesticides.

Parents assume
that schools are safe places, but this is not necessarily a safe
assumption, he said.

Under the
1972 amendments to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide
Act, the EPA was required to reassess all pesticides according
to modern safety standards. The agency had reassessed none by
1988, and by 1999, only 31 pesticides had been both reassessed
and re-registered as acceptable, leaving about 20,000 products
to go. The reassessment is not expected to be completed until
2006, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Twenty-four
states address the indoor use of pesticides in the schools, and
only one, Massachusetts, prohibits their use in and around schools.
Some Ohio school systems, including Beachwood and South Euclid,
have adopted practices that reflect concern about children's exposure
to toxic substances, Feldman said, but most have not.

Most Ohio
school systems, 72 percent, don't know about nontoxic pest management,
according to a 2001 Denison University survey. The survey also
found that Ohio schools use very toxic chemicals to control mere
nuisance pests such as ants; they do not warn students and parents
when pesticides are applied; and they are "relatively careless"
about when pesticides are applied at school.

A nontoxic
approach to pest management at schools is both more effective
and cheaper than the conventional approach, said Barry Zucker,
director of the Ohio Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.
And it has the complete support of the industry's National Pest
Management Association, spokeswoman Cindy Mannes said.

Integrated
Pest Management, as the nontoxic system is called, eliminates
or drastically reduces the need for pesticides, Zucker said. The
system involves making pest habitats unlivable by removing food
and water sources and using baits and traps instead of spraying
chemicals. Indiana University entomologist Marc Lame, who will
be among the presenters Wednesday, said Integrated Pest Management
results in better overall control at less cost, a consideration
that usually appeals to budget-crunched school administrators.

"I poke
at them. 'This is what you can do, so why don't you?' " said
Lame.

Madison Schools
Superintendent James Herrholtz said his system's maintenance supervisor
will attend the educational event at Beachwood High School, although
he's confident that another incident is avoidable.

A new pesticide
agent has been hired, all work must occur on weekends, and internal
spraying must occur in summer. Although written standards of pest
control have not been adopted, all work must be scheduled through
the maintenance supervisor.

The pesticide
incident, Herrholtz said, was "so traumatic" to the
community.